


Mindswap

by Tezca



Category: Country Music RPF, Doctor Who
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Doctor Who Fusion, Gen, Humor, Light Angst, mindswap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-19
Updated: 2018-08-19
Packaged: 2019-06-29 19:42:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15736107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tezca/pseuds/Tezca
Summary: The Colonel and the Doctor experience a trope





	Mindswap

Shelton walked out of the rec room of the Tardis when he heard the sounds of footsteps mixed in with voices through the open door. He had to stay out of this particular adventure due to not feeling so well. Plus the Colonel didn’t want them to accidentally find out that a common human 24 hour flu was the equivalent of the bubonic plague to another species. Despite the fact that he knew enough about many different planets, he didn’t know about every single one. Where would the fun be if he knew everything there was to know about the universe. 

What the Colonel was confident on was a medicine from roughly 150 years into the future from Shelton’s timeline was enough to nip the illness in the bud early on. Now he woke up to the sight of not just the usual suspects but two new people as well. A young brown haired women who Shooter can claim he is a little taller than and a tall, curly blonde haired man in a technicolor coat of nightmares. He also looked like he tried to emulate Hank Jr in the weight department a little. Said blonde hair man and the Colonel were in the midst of trading insults. 

Shooter and the young women finally noticed him,“Oh hey Shelton you won’t guess what happened!” Shooter laughed with a casual smile, “Jon and the Doctor got mind swapped.” Shooter finished with another amused laugh.

Shelton, as to be expected of anyone else who just walked into this, had on a confused look on his face. So many questions now, or at least a few important ones, “Mind swapped? You mean like in each other bodies?” Clearly he missed something. 

This time the young woman spoke up, she too found this somewhat amusing. At least it wasn’t any worse, she felt fine enough to take it in stride. Not like the Doctor switched minds with a Dalek or anybody else that was evil. “Yeah umm, the blond one over there is the Doctor. I travel with him. My name is Peri. It’s short for Perpugilliam, but friends call me Peri.” She stuck out a hand to shake.

“Ah, that’s a nice name.” He never heard of that name before, he wondered how her parents came to that name. But Peri was a good enough nickname. At least he wrapped his mind around the name easily enough. Mind swapping, however, he thought was relegated to only Saturday morning cartoons and Disney movies. But of course he can’t be too surprised, and he wasn’t. It was another thing entirely for it to happen in reality. “I’m Shelton.” 

“I must say my boy, you better have a plan on how to fix this mess since it was you that caused this in the first place!” The Doctor shouted in his own face that stared just as angrily back at him, it unnerved him in a prideful sense that someone was using his body. His! Someone else had his beautiful impeccable curly light hair and bright blue eyes. And had on his wonderful coat and shiny cat pino boot while here he was, stuck inside someone who, to him, looked like he was to be too obsessed with the 70s period on Earth.

“Me!? You were the one that was so fucking damn sure that it was newly abandoned! Who was the one that wanted to play it safe?” The Colonel shouted back, he should’ve just stuck to his gut and stood his ground on his decision. If the fact that he yelled at what should be his body rattled him a bit then he was doing a damn job of not showing it. The only (admittedly petty) thing really that horrified him more than his own body in front of him inhabited by someone else was the clothes this incarnation of the Doctor chose to wear. He almost felt like he committed the most horrible fashion crime for the ages. Almost.

The Doctor scoffed at the indignation and promptly dismissed the claim, “It was hardly my fault. It is most definitely not of my doing that a fellow Time Lord is prone to getting paranoid as much as the humans do.”

“It’s called common sense! You almost got Shooter and your own girlfriend hurt!” The Colonel yelled loud enough for everyone else to hear clearly as he made a gesture towards Shooter and Peri. Ok that is of needed explanation.

“I did nothing of the sort!”

“You got us caught by a bunch of lizard scientists!”

“Well this wouldn’t had happen if you had listened to my plan after the fact.”

“Your plan was illogical!” The Colonel shouted and the Doctor could only replied with an offended gasp.

“Well I...hmph I will let that go only because I assume then that you are only 150 years old. It’s plain to see that you haven’t gotten the vast experience a 900 year old Time Lord has to know to precisely-”

“I’m in my 530s.” The Colonel cut him off pointly before he continued on, not allowing the chance for a rebuttal, “You know this would’ve not happened at all if we didn’t even go in the first place! I should’ve not let myself get persuaded to breaking and entering.” He regretfully muttered under his breath.

The Doctor and the Colonel shouted at each other still as Shelton looked at the other two after a quick look at the Time Lords, “What the hell happened?”

“To make a long story short, we ran into and met the Doctor and Peri while we were out.”

“We were headed towards a lab that the Doctor found interesting due to stories he heard. Your friend didn’t want to illegally go in, I didn’t want to illegally go in,” Peri emphasized with a gesture to herself then sighed wearily, “But I was outvoted.” She said the last part with a glare sent Shooter’s way and her hands on her hips.

“I may have been a bit too excited about the idea of breaking into an alien building.’ Shooter sheepishly added with an embarrassed sort of laugh. It was just a bad idea in hindsight, “But it wasn’t me that got him to agree, it was the Doctor.” Shooter finished with an explanation. Let it be said that he can be easily seen to reason with any good points the Colonel would bring up about anything that might lead to a dangerous situation. The Doctor had just got him hyped up more on the idea than usual.

“Anyway we went into a laboratory and that’s when we got caught. In order to keep us safe from experimentation for punishment, the Time Lords made them think they just simply dragged us along and we were innocent in all this.” Shooter said just as said two Time Lords took this moment to storm pass them to the Colonel’s big closet he had in here.

The three turned their attention to the Doctor and the Colonel and followed after. It was easy to reckon that they went to look at themselves in the mirror to see they temporarily looked like. 

“Oh dear me, dear old me just what is this unruly, tangled up mess you call hair?!” The Doctor asked as he ran his fingers through his head as he gazed at himself in the mirror.

The Colonel rolled his eyes and glared at the Doctor. Just how soon can they be swapped back to their given bodies? He already wished it happened already, “Oh so we’re being hypocrites today I see huh? Newsflash I can say the same thing about your hair!” He shot back while he pointed to the blond hair he now had for the moment. In truth the Doctor’s hairstyle was fine, in fact it was a little similar to his own hair, except his was dark and he had sideburns to go along with it. Just something about the arrogance of the sentence that made him drop some tact.

“I don’t even know where to begin with this horrible abominable excuse for a coat!” The Colonel stated with such wide eyed disbelief before he faced the Doctor, “I gotta ask did you buy this from a clown reject?” 

The Doctor let out an offended higher pitched gasp, “Hey! I will have you know that coat is considered high fashion on several planets!”

“Well those planets must be on several different types of drugs 24/7 then.” The Colonel smiled as he took off the coat and thusly handed it over. Said Doctor looked even more offended at this move as he put on the coat. “Good riddance, this coat does nothing to bring out my brilliant blue eyes.” The Colonel finished with a straight face as he faced him.

And that was the last of the Great Insult War to be understandable as the two now began to shout at each other in Gallifreyan. Shelton and Peri more rolled their eyes in annoyance while Shooter just casually laughed at the sight. Luckily it didn’t last too long and the two appeared to calm down from the childish insults shortly afterwards. Both the Colonel and the Doctor didn’t want to drag it out as they had more pertinent things to worry about than each other tastes in fashion and whatnot.

“How worried should we be about this?” Shooter asked unsure, he hoped as much as everyone else that there was a way to reverse the process. 

“Worried. Only because from what the Doctor told me before, there is a limited window of time to fix it before the switch becomes permanent.” Peri explained the best she could as the Colonel and the Doctor walked up.

“My dear Peri yes that is correct, it does my two hearts proud to know that you have remembered such important information, however simplistic, for a situation like this,” Even from another body, the Doctor can exude an air of arrogance. By now Peri has gotten used to it enough to put up with it. However weird that felt, it wouldn’t be him otherwise. Safe to say she and the Doctor had a complicated relationship, “The duration in which we can be able to fix this varies due to there being lots of way to do a mind swap.”

“How long is it? Shooter asked.

“About 3 days.” 

The Colonel let out a bit of a dejected sigh, he wasn’t sure if they’ll make due to the circumstances but he didn’t allow himself to think of the worst case scenario. As shallow as it sounds he, and the Doctor for that matter as well both were too used to how they looked before this all happened, “Problem is we obviously can’t go to the source of the problem.”

“So will it work if we find another way to reverse it?” Shelton asked.

“Unfortunately it might take to long to find another device capable of rectifying this annoying problem. Mind swapping is banned in several systems!” The Doctor replied and the Colonel attested to that with a nod.

“We’ll have to build one ourselves.” 

_______________________

Luckily no one in the universe really cared all that much about if anyone went to a planet solely used as a place to dumb old disregarded tech and equipement people deemed outdated. What also compounded the problem a little more was that they needed specific types of parts with the right kind of voltage in order to fix the swap. That and the fact these junkyard planets tended to encompass a large portion of said planet. 

Good news is on the first couple of junkyard planets, they found most of the things required in a reasonable about of time. Bad news is they still needed a major component that allowed the transfer of psionic something or another to happen between two people.

The Doctor took in a generous inhale of cool, clean air before he exhaled happily, “Ah we should be grateful this planet hasn’t changed since the last time I made a stop here. Same sky, same junk for miles and miles with nary a chance of any threat happening. There’s nothing organic left on this planet you know.” He stated as he looked around for a second before he turned to the others and explained, “I only stopped here just to throw out the celery my younger fifth self woefully thought it was a fashion accessory. It did, however, prove useful once to be fair which is why I have some backup celery just in case in my Tardis. But I will not be caught dead wearing one!”  
The Colonel had to let out a friendly laugh at the thought of the Doctor wearing a celery. That he so very much agreed with, he wouldn’t be caught dead with one either. He’ll have to be insane and on some kind of drugs first to think it was good idea to wear a vegetable. “And what use does a celery have other than eating it out of desperation cause there’s nothing else in the kitchen if you don’t mind me asking?” The Colonel faced the Doctor with a casual smile.

“To combat an allergic reaction to certain types of gases for one.”

The Colonel paused for a split moment and admitted, “That’s a good point.” He conceded.

“So how the hell are we going to search through miles and miles of this?!” Shelton exclaimed as he looked around. There was nothing but a teal colored alien sky and junk as far as the eye can see. Just before they got out, the two Time Lords had combined the power of their scanners to look for the area designated for tech of any kind.

“We’ll just have to split up. We’ll take the right side, you boys take the left.” The Doctor suggested as he faced the others. He turned around to face the endless mounds of junk before them, “Come along Peri.” He said as he walked off to the right. 

Peri took a moment as she found herself momentarily distracted by the sight of the technicolor coat. She had to do a double take to see the combined results of that coat and dark hair, “I think that coat works better with your um, given appearance.” Peri admitted out loud to the others before she followed after her boyfriend.

The Colonel couldn’t argue with that, a coat like that looked less silly with dark hair as opposed to blond hair. But then again the other clothes the Doctor had on probably didn’t helped the full ensemble in the first place. He watched the Doctor for a moment longer, the coat billowing behind with Peri caught up to his side in the distance. He turned to Shooter and Shelton with a determined look on his face. “Alright let’s go and start over there,” He said as he pointed to two nearby big piles.

‘What does this part look like again? Some kinda regulator you said?” Shooter looked up at the Colonel for a second as they started the walk. It was still funny enough a bit to see his friend with blond hair.

“Yep, a silvery metallic box with a black connector at the top. I’ll send you a pic for a better visual.” The Colonel offered.

“I was gonna point out there are probably a lot of other similar looking boxes that ain’t exactly what we’re looking for.” Shelton commented.

The Colonel just hit send before he replied, “Which is why the picture will help give you a better idea to distinguish it from all the others.”

The three set to rummage through the junk in silence for the next 30 minutes. It was still kinda weird in a way, the whole mind swap situation. Not in a bad way of course, but Shooter was just so used to seeing the Colonel with dark hair and...70s to sum it all up. He knew the personality didn’t change one bit obviously, but from what he could understand about regeneration was that a mind swap is a different thing. Is that case, is this a simplified version of the very concept? He currently sat down on a spot midway up the slope of a hill while the Colonel was at the bottom. Shelton meanwhile was a few feet away from them

Shooter was half deep in thought for a half a second before he looked up from a broken futuristic version of an Ipad, “Hey Jon can I ask you a question?” 

“Sure, shoot.” 

“Is this what regeneration like for Time Lords? I know you already told me the looks may change.”

“Well that is if said Time Lord wants to change their look, but it ain’t impossible for a Time Lord’s next incarnation to be the same as their previous one.” He felt a little anxious for the reply, As selfish as it sounded, he hoped his next incarnation won’t be too jarringly different in terms of behavior. 

“Oh. What about personality?” The Colonel stopped and looked up at Shooter, seemed like his mind was on the idea of regeneration. Usually the topic is rarely brought up as it isn’t really thought about too deeply. Mainly cause it hadn’t happened yet. But Shooter didn’t need to worry too much about the result when it does happen.

“Personality included. It just depends on the Time Lord. They can stay the same for 3 incarnations then decided to go with something different for the next one. Or 5 or, hell all 12 if they wanted.” The Colonel assured him as he rummaged and threw things that wasn’t what they looked for away to the side with a clang and a clatter to break the silence. “You don’t need to worry about my personality doing a completely 180. I’ll still be the same cool dude you met.” He finished with a friendly and assured smile as he looked up at Shooter for a second

Just what seemed like a second later, they both heard the sound of feet on metal and turned to see Shelton with a silvery box in his hand and his phone in the other, “Hey Jon, I think I found it! It looks similar enough to the picture to me.” Shelton walked over to the Colonel and handed him the object. Shooter, meanwhile, slid down to the ground on his feet.

The Colonel looked over the box with a careful eye, scrutinizing the details a little bit, “This is one of them, but there is one problem,” The Colonel looked at the top of the silver metal box. There was a hole in the middle of the black part on the top where the wires would be connected at, “The port is too small.” He said as he threw the box lazily over his shoulder, “Fortunately are common enough for use in machines used to help people with mind related issues so there’s bound to be some more hidden somewhere, course unfortunately there are people who modify them for illegal shit. The model we’re looking for has a slightly bigger connecting port.” The Colonel finished.

After about 10 more minutes the group walked out to meet in the middle of the path, “Alas me and Peri could not find the required equipment to complete the missing pieces to fix our problem. I pray tell hope you have Colonel?”

The Colonel signed and shook his head, “No, well we found one, but it was the wrong model.”

“Oh that is a shame.”

“How much time do we have left to fix this?” Peri asked and the Doctor looked at his watch before he looked at the 4 others.

“About 12 hours.” 

_______________

They managed to find the right version of the electric psionic regulator about 4 hours later, and everything was going smoothly which the universe decided to do something about it. No it seemed like if a Time Lord or two is involved is on an adventure of some sort, there must be an obstacle or two of some kind to pile onto whatever problem they might’ve run into. Like if was some unspoken universal law only applied to renegade members. This time said obstacle took the form of a storm in the distant that made itself known at the worst possible time. The Colonel had just grabbed the final piece of the machine after he climbed up a small hill when a sudden crack of thunder sounded through the sky; 

They all immediately turned to the source of the sound, dark clouds definitely moved in fast, “Holy shit that is the biggest fucking storm I’ve ever seen.” Shelton exclaimed. A torrent of rain came down in the horizon and it seemed to stretch on for miles on either side.

“We have to get back to the Tardis!” The Doctor was alarmed as the Colonel jumped down from the hill of junk. Both he and the Colonel felt the color drain away from their faces. This was no ordinary rainstorm. 

It didn’t help Peri and Shooter to have their mind still on ease mode by the reactions of the two Time Lords, “Why Doctor? It’s just a rainstorm right...I’ve been through heavy rainstorms back in Maryland on Earth.”

“So have I.” Shooter commented.

“That isn’t no ordinary rainstorm my dear Peri.” The Doctor replied, he instinctively grabbed ahold of her hand, “that is acid rain.”

“What?!” Shelton automatically reacted as he turned his head towards the Doctor.

“Oh yes. I seem to recall why there hasn’t been anything organic here for almost 750 years. Seasonal planetwide acid rainstorm that is rumored to be the most acidic in this part of the galaxy. Enough to burn a hole into your skin to your very bone.”

Shelton just stared at him for a good few seconds, “And you fucking didn’t think to tell us this until now?!” He was understandably annoyed as he gave the Doctor a look.

“He has a point Doctor, that would’ve been useful to know a few hours ago.” Peri crossed her arms and lightly scolded her boyfriend with a look.

The Doctor looked at the two and became a little on the defensive, “Well you can’t blame my memory! I haven’t been here in years and nobody cares about a junkyard planet to remember everything about it like the back of their hand.” 

“How far away are we from the Tardises?” The Colonel asked quickly as he turned his gaze to the other Time Lord. The storm seemed to be moving towards them at a menacing pace. He negated the chance for Shelton to make a smartass comment so he settled for arms crossed and an annoyed roll of the eyes. 

“About a half a mile that way.” The Doctor pointed in the direction in front of him.

Shooter can feel the adrenaline pump though his body as he watched the storm in the distance (the same can be said for Peri), “The storm looks like its come in fast!”

“Run!” The Colonel shouted, but it didn’t really need to be said as that was the agreed conclusion anyways. He grabbed Shooter by the wrist and the Doctor kept his grip on Peri as they all started to make a mad dash to the spaceships. 

___________________

The group had to make a few turns and zig zag through a maze of junk but luckily they made it back in the nick of time to the Doctor’s Tardis. Course they all had to muster up all of their strength and will to keep their legs on the move by the time they made it through the doors. They had to take a good ten minutes to rest and regain their breaths before the Doctor and Colonel got back to the bigger task at hand.

“You still got that regulator Colonel I hope.” 

The Colonel held it in front of him with a smile, ‘I do.” It was almost a miracle he didn’t drop it on the way over.

“Great! Let’s finish this shall we?” The Doctor suggested and they walked through the door on the side of the console room. The other three followed them to the room where they put the machine together.

“How long will the transfer be?” Shelton asked curiously as he leaned up against the wall of the room with his back.

“It shan’t be more than a couple of minutes.” The Doctor answered as he and the Colonel worked to set up the box. All they had to do with connect some wires and they would be good to go.

“It won’t hurt you two?” Peri was sweetly concerned.

“It shouldn’t Peri.” The Doctor said as they got finished and grabbed the two helmets. “Could one of you please come up and pressed the button when we’re ready.” He finished as he put on the helmet and laid down on one of the two tables.

As soon as Shelton hit the switch, they both felt a harmless electric buzz before they slipped into unconsciousness. Suddenly both of them themselves back on Gallirey, and given both of their opinion on the planet, it was quite a bit of a jump scare like something has happened at the last minute. But thankfully it wasn’t, for the Colonel he realized right away the memory that was around them right now. How he came to this conclusion was that he and the Doctor were inside one of his (He was also thankful inside that he and the Doctor had their given appearance in here).

The two found themselves inside a small cabin with the sounds of laser blasts and Daleks outside. The Doctor stood at one side momentarily before he noticed the scene outside the window. Everything looked more wartorned than he remembered, broken buildings and people caught in the crossfire. He looked around with a mixture of confusion and horror strewn all over his face as lasers were blasted and the sight of Daleks everywhere. And what troubled him more about it was that the buildings and everything looked Gallifreyan in origin.

“What-what in the world is going on here?” The Doctor asked with a bit of anguish in his tone. While this definitely looked real, he knew there was no real harm as it was just a memory. A terrifying one at that, “Is this Gallifrey?”

Before the Colonel could answer, the door opened to reveal a memory version of the Colonel and Shooter who ran in to hide. And upon closer look, he noticed it wasn’t just those two, they also had a small girl with them as well. The Doctor didn’t take his sight off of the memory versions as he walked over to where the Colonel was. Past Colonel held Shooter and the child in a protective embrace as the former slid down in the farthest corner from them.

“Yep. Time War.” The Colonel replied matter of factly, but it just served to make the Doctor more confused.

“Time War? Time War? Time War!?” 

The Colonel faced him with a confused look of his own, “Yeah don’t you-“ Oh it suddenly dawned on him and the slight growing annoyance melted away, “Fuck you don’t know do you?!” 

“I don’t.” The Doctor shook his head. He had a distraught look on his face, sure he couldn’t care less about a visit back to Gallifrey, but he didn’t expect something like this to happen.

“Must be in your future then, but my past.” The Colonel moved his gaze back on the memory versions of him and his friend, “The gist of it is the Daleks will invade Gallifrey sometime in your future.”

“You picked a fine time to show your friend there this monotonous planet then.” The Doctor commented with light sarcasm.

The Colonel wasn’t fazed by it, “Shooter was kidnapped here and stranded for a couple days give or take.”

The Doctor just started at him shocked before he looked at the figures still in the corner then back at him. It was a good thing they couldn’t interact with their memories, “Who in their bloody right mind would do something as heinously as this?!” Of course it was more of a rhetoric exclamation, “I wouldn’t put it past the government. Or the Master.”

“It was the Rani.”

The Doctor stopped mid rant, “The Rani kidnapped him?”

“Right into the Death Zone.” 

“Why am I not the least bit surprised she would do something like this,” The Doctor groaned, “Me and Peri ran into her and the Master once. She must’ve tried to do an experiment again.”

“Considering we didn’t run into her, she might’ve got scared off from the Daleks.”

“Or that was her experiment all along, see how long a human can last in a chaotic war.” The Doctor postulated as he looked out the window for another moment.

“This was his first introduction to alien life.” It was one of the few things he always felt bad about throughout the years since, “He didn’t deserve this, nobody from a low tech planet like Earth deserves this. He was stranded here for almost 3 days, I was rescuing people when we ran into each other.” The Colonel finished and the Doctor gave him an empathized smile.

“Rescuing people? Why that’s very noble of you, I knew there had to other morally benevolent Time Lords out there.”

“Yeah that seems to be a rarity.” The Colonel softly joked not really in the mood to entertain it any longer than needed as long as they were inside this particular memory. In truth there were other non corrupted Time Lords with a good moral compass, but just on the face of things from the more well known Time Lords out there, well, one would think it seemed uncommon. the colors of the memory around them started to fade into a different scene. It was enough for them to be caught off guard as it changed to the scene inside 

“If things were different his first taste of the universe would be some futuristic arcade place or the movies.” The Colonel signed dejectedly. The Doctor put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

“Life can be unfair for all of us.” He pointed out and the Colonel gave a small nod of agreement, “I imagine this didn’t do any good for his psyche afterwards.” He added as he watched past Colonel held the child in one arm and held Shooter hand with the other. 

Just after the door was closed, both the Colonel and the Doctor noticed the colors of the memory started to fade. It caught both of them slightly off guard as their surroundings suddenly turned into the inside of a white and bright round room with a console in the middle. Definitely a Tardis for sure.

The scene before them was the moment just after the Doctor finished regenerating from his fifth self. No doubt this one didn’t go too well and it caused him to have a mental breakdown. Due to the post regeneration trauma, the past version of Six accused Peri of being a spy. Peri was understandable both confused on what happened and terrified, especially when the past version strangled her.

“Oh no, no not this again…” The Doctor cried out as he walked backwards until he felt his back meet up with the wall. He stood up for only a second or two before slid down to the floor, “No I never ever wish to be reminded of when I was not in my right mind! Oh my dear sweet Peri how I will never forgive myself for this.”

“I’m assuming this is what they meant by a bad regeneration.” The Colonel stated soberly as he turned his gaze away from the scene and faced the Doctor. He has heard plenty of stories before of regenerations not going as good as one wanted them too. It was different for every Time Lord and even different for every incarnation of an individual Time Lord. This didn’t serve well to put him at ease about what could happen with his first regeneration when the time comes. Maybe part of it was that he just took it for granted somewhat that his first will go pretty much smoothly. 

The Doctor looked at him with a dejected look that gave him all the answers he needed for that question, “Oh my dear young fellow Time Lord yes. How a Time Lord will be able to handle regeneration is cruelty random. Am I right to guess that you are still on your first incarnation?”

“Yeah.” The Colonel sat down next to the Doctor.

“Well in that case you might want to let your friends know ahead of time of what could happened. You don’t want to make a similar mistake as I have.” 

The Colonel felt more anxious about his future regeneration, questions he didn’t really wanted to worry about right now. He was still young so to speak right? So thus it’ll still be a while before he has to worry about any sort of trauma. Right? He just really didn’t want to have this happened unexpectedly due to some shit circumstance or another, followed by a post regeneration sickness that resulted in uncharacterized behavior before he got better.

He’ll be devastated if he did anything to drive anyone he cared about away. 

The Colonel wasn’t lost in his own thoughts for very long before he received a much needed distraction, “You know sometimes I feel like the biggest mystery of the universe is why Peri decided to fall in love with me despite what happened.” The Doctor lamented solemnly.

Biggest mystery? He couldn’t help but chuckle a little to himself a bit of how over dramatic he sounded there, but he definitely got where he came from, “She obviously had to realize it just royally screwed you up for a bit there, at least eventually.”

The Doctor looked at him for a few seconds before back at his own feet, “I know. I apologized many times and she told me she understood that I wasn’t in my right mind but I can’t never wash away the guilt that it was me that caused her to be terrified for the next few days. Deep down I sometimes feel she is still somewhat. I mean for all she knows I could have another fit of madness!”

“I think if she was still terrified then she wouldn’t stay with you long enough to be in a relationship with you.” The Colonel reassured him with a friendly smile as he faced him.

The Doctor took a minute to take in what he said then sighed softly, “I suppose you right, I haven’t had any fits as bad as the one you just saw since. But I still worry from time to time, I really do love Peri and she loves me just the same so I would very much hate for something like this to happen again.”

“Well just based on what I’ve seen recently, especially back in the lab, I think I don’t have any worries about her safety around you for what it’s worth.” The Colonel smiled helpfully, “You were just as quick to protect her from the lizard police or whoever as I was to protect Shooter.”

The Doctor smiled and gave a soft nod, “I will never hesitate to do anything to keep my Peri safe,” The Doctor added as he took a brief pause before he mused on something unrelated, “Funny how those lizard people have such a primitive knowledge of a simple mind swap to the point of making it a punishment for a crime.”

The Colonel couldn’t disagree. While it was some miracle that they acted well enough for the lizard people to not catch on that a mind swap can be reversed (not that they would be quick to understand it), said primitive method that they created would’ve been too much for Shooter’s and Peri’s human minds.

By now the scene had ended and the memory faded away into a black sea of nothingness, “The transfer must be just about done. If everything went well then we should be back into our right bodies.” The Doctor stated as he faced the Colonel before they stood up.

Just a second later the two woke up in the real world to the sight of their companions still in the room. Or at least Peri and Shooter were, Shelton had to apparently step out to take an unexpected call from his dad. There was tentative air in the beginning as they took off their helmets and slowly sat up. No one in the room was sure if they made it in time or if it actually worked at all. It would quickly fade away however into pleasant relief when Peri handed him a handheld mirror to the Doctor, “It worked! Haha my hair is as light as the day is long!” The Doctor said with a bombastic exclamation followed by a collective breath of relief.

“May I see that?” The Colonel asked as he pointed to the mirror and proceeded to take a look himself. Course he realized they could do a further test to see if it did actually work cause for all the other three know, they could be pretending that it worked. But the accent he picked up on Earth was enough to differentiate him from the Doctor.

“Dark hair, sideburns…yeah it definitely worked!”

“For a second there I thought I was gonna have to get used to you being blond.” Shooter joked with a smile.

The Colonel chuckled then took a look at the Doctor’s coat he still had on in the mirror. Perhaps he was too hasty earlier in his assessment over the technicolor coat, “I take back whatever I said earlier Doctor, your coat looks pretty cool with jeans and a dark shirt.”

The Doctor looked a little surprised to hear that, it wasn’t too often that he hears something complimentary about his choice of coats. He smiled, “Thank you my boy.”

“It certainly tells the universe you don’t give a shit what the universe thinks about your appearance.” The Colonel stood up to get a good look at it.

“Exactly! It is the pinnacle of making the statement that you truly do not wish to go with the grain of any society!” The Doctor paused before he corrected himself, “I admit that may not be as effective on those planets where this is considered the highest level of fashion.”

“That I can go with. Still clashes with your shirt and pants.” Peri pointed out with a light smile.

“That may be Peri, but my point still stands. Whether it looks subjectively good or not, I don’t care and the same can be said about you and your choices of clothes.” The Doctor looked at Peri with a light tease before he put an arm around the younger Time Lord and faced him, “Come along Colonel, since you seem to like it, I want to offer you one of my spare coats as a token of thanks for everything.”

“That’ll be sweet, thanks dude! You got one in purple by any chance?”

“My lad I have one of every color of the rainbow! Plus another one just like this.” The Doctor smiled as he led him out of the room and down the corridor.

“At least it’ll be just in one color.” Peri joked as she looked at Shooter, “Trust me, I sometimes worry some people don’t take my boyfriend as seriously as they should cause of his coat.”

Shooter casually laughed in response, “Don’t have to worry about that, Jon has a good eye for what looks cool.” Shooter replied before they both walked out of of the room to join the others.


End file.
